The word is out: if you’re bored during the sermon, come see the wazungu (white people) and they will lend you a children’s Bible to read. We are very popular!
New Bibles!
All 8th grade students get a Bible before they go to High School. Today my office has been busy handing out Bibles to these young students. Many of them, this is their very first Bible they have ever had. Pure Joy!
This is… Life
Our family wanted to share a bit of our life with #TeamGerbersGo, so today we made you a little Christmas present. Merry Christmas! We hope you like it.
This is… Life.
Joska Boarding School
Finally got out to the boarding school at Joska to see all of the progress made since we first visited 9 years ago!
New clinic, dorms, arena, greenhouses and computer lab.
The Extended Family
Meet the Fam! Hannah’s first time meeting Millicent and all of us to meet Francis!
We showed them all the letters that they’ve written us, brought them some gifts and food for their families, and talked with them about their dreams, favorite things, and prayed for them and their families.
Happy Thanksgiving
Th
ankful to spend our first Thanksgiving in Kenya eating turkey etc. with teammates and other expats. The highlight was taking turns holding this beautiful baby girl!
Short Rains Blues
We’ve entered the “Short Rains” season. While September and October have been beautiful everyday, the last two weeks it has rained everyday and it has gotten cooler (58º-75º). The weather really changes life here. Remember all homes/offices don’t have heat – the temperature outside is the temperature inside. Solar powered hot water heaters also don’t work well on cloudy, rainy days.
There is a lot of uncovered soil and poor drainage so there is mud and giant mud puddles everywhere. For us that means our car is filthy and we were boots everyday, but most Kenyans walk everywhere through all of that, many in sandals.
So we’re suffering from a little seasonal affective disorder. Like everything else we have it much better than our Kenyan friends and coworkers. We’re just not used to it yet. It’s the short rains so we only have a couple weeks of it left. We can make it!
Thanks for being on this journey with us! Please pray for our family this week. Thanksgiving is (of course) an American holiday and not celebrated here. In the past we would have taken this week off and already be with family in Ohio. We miss not being there. We were able to order a turkey and will be eating a grand meal with our American teammates on Thursday. We are very thankful for our life here in Kenya that God has provided.
Look Who We Found!
WOW, what a surprise today! Today we ran into one of the kids we sponsor. We’ve sponsored Millicent since 2008. We met her in 2008, Patrick visited her in 2011, and now today! Hannah has the day off next Friday so we are planning to introduce them for the first time AND we’ll all meet our other kid, Francis.
The best part for Patrick is that Millicent wants to be a Photographer! She is studying photography and was very interested in his camera!
Special Needs in the Slums
Today was a wonderful and very difficult day in the slums. Patrick and I have been blessed to be doing a few home visits in the Slums.
Today we went to visit a single mother and her son who has Cerebral Palsy. The mother is loving and strong and does everything she can to provide for her family. I’m so grateful for Amon who works with the disability program who visits this family often to show Jesus’s love to this family and offer encouragement and support for this beautiful family.
We are excited for our teammate Nikki to come back soon. She is currently raising support to return and serve in the disability program at Missions of Hope. Support Nikki!
New Job Orientation
Today was our first day touring some of the Hope Centers that we’ve never been to before. Since school is out for the year, we got to ask the staff lots of questions. We were inspired by the staff leadership!
Funny Story: When we were leaving one school, Katie was trying to connect with an elementary aged boy. Since he held a paper with some Swahili words on it, Katie pointed out some of the words she knew and translated them into English. A few moments later we found out the boy was taking an exam testing his Swahili vocabulary. Oops. #MissionaryFail